On Tuesday 13 July, the Ecofin Council could adopt the first “twelve” national recovery plans sent to the European Commission, said Portuguese Finance Minister João Leão on Friday 18 June in Luxembourg.
This step will allow the countries concerned to receive pre-financing from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the budgetary instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan. On Tuesday, the Commission raised €20 billion on the markets for this purpose in the largest institutional bond issue ever in Europe (see EUROPE 12741/6).
By the end of April, 13 Member States had officially presented their plans: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Spain (see EUROPE 12711/2).
To date, 24 countries have done so, the latest being Estonia. The Estonia plan will receive aid in the amount of €982.5 million from the RRF, in the form of grants only.
Malta, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands have yet to submit their national plans.
Of these 24 Member States, the Commission has recommended the adoption of the plans of Denmark, Spain, Greece, Luxembourg, and Portugal. It is expected to do so on Monday 21 June for Austria and Slovakia; the following day for Latvia, Germany, and Italy; and the day after for Belgium and France. A visit by its President, Ursula von der Leyen, to each of these countries has been announced.
Asked by EUROPE about the intensity of upstream discussions on the preparation of the plans between the Commission and member states, the EU institution’s Executive Vice-President, Valdis Dombrovskis, said there were intensive exchanges at technical level, with regular updates of the College.
On the concerns raised by the Director of OLAF about the control of EU funds that will be channelled through the European Recovery Plan, he pointed to the detailed nature of the recovery plans and referred to the regulatory provisions governing audit and control systems. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)